This invention pertains to anti-endazzlement/anti-glare shields that are positioned on vehicle rearview mirrors, and more particularly to templates for making same.
The problem of dazzle and glare caused by the reflection of light originating from headlights and the sun from interior and exterior rearview mirrors of a vehicle has long been known and many attempts have been made to alleviate the problem.
A major source of night driving dazzle and glare from both interior and exterior rear view mirrors is from headlights of a trailing vehicle, and particularly if the vehicle has its high beams on. Modern streetlights, such as utilize sodium vapor lamps, are also a source of driving dazzle and glare from rearview mirrors at night. All motor vehicles today have an interior rearview mirror that include a manually operable mechanism for decreasing the reflectance of the mirror to compensate for such dazzle and glare. During earlier and latter daylight hours another major source of driving dazzle and glare from both interior and exterior rearview mirrors is the sun because it is low in the sky and behind the vehicle.
A variety of expensive and inexpensive methods and apparatus have been taught in the prior art to alleviate such reflected dazzle and glare from rearview mirrors. Interior rear view mirrors have a manually operable means to change the reflectance of the mirror as mentioned in the previous paragraph. Exterior rearview mirrors are not provided with such a solution to the dazzle and glare problem. The inexpensive approach to reduce dazzle and glare from an exterior rearview mirror has been to place a piece of tinted film over the mirror, but cutting a piece of such tinted film to fit a mirror is a laborious task. In addition, the tinted film often covers a portion of a mirror that a driver of a vehicle on which the rearview mirror is mounted wishes is not covered.
To alleviate the problems with prior art tinted films, I provide a tinted film having a release sheet protecting a surface of the tinted film used for self adhering, electrostatically adhering, or adhesively adhering the film to the viewing surface of a mirror, and on the exterior surface of the release sheet is printed a guide for cutting the tinted film that consists of a plurality of straight and curved lines that greatly assist a person in expeditiously cutting the film to the correct size to fit on a rearview mirror. For cuts to be made to the film for which the printed lines are not sufficient, a pin may be used to mark a series of small holes or pinpricks along the edge or near the edge of the mirror, and the film is then cut along the series of holes.